Cuomo says Legislature should codify outside income ban

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he's happy that a commission tasked with studying state officials' pay was to demand limits on outside income for legislators as part of a package of recommendations that included a long-sought pay hike.

“We want to get talented people into the Legislature,” Cuomo said in an interview on WNYC.

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“You have to pay them a salary that allows them to live and not be a martyr. I also agree that there should be a ban on outside income; I’ve said that for many, many years. And the commission found their way to that, so I think that’s good news.”

He acknowledged that there’s a good chance that the commission’s decision will eventually be challenged in court. But the governor argued that it’s less likely to be successful if lawmakers simply codify the committee’s recommendations on outside income.

“I’m sure there will be a challenge to the commission report, because the Republicans in the Legislature don’t want the ban on outside income,” Cuomo said. “Many of the Republicans have outside law firm practices. In my opinion that is an inherent conflict of interest that has caused problems over and over again. The Republicans refused to pass the ban in the past, and that’s why there was no pay increase.

“So I do expect a challenge for political reasons. But the Legislature can handle the ban, because if there’s any question about the commission’s authority, the Democrats are all in favor of a ban on outside income anyway. The Senate minority, the Democrats, passed the same ban. All the Assembly people say they’re in favor of a ban. So if there’s any question as to the commission’s authority, it’s very simple for them to remedy it. Come back in January and pass a separate law that enacts the same congressional limits," he said, referring to income limits placed on members of Congress.

It’s true that Republican lawmakers are more likely to earn outside income. In 2017, 24 Republicans and 17 Democrats reported outside salary ranges with a minimum of $20,000 or more — there were roughly twice as many Democrats as Republicans serving in the two chambers. Senate Democrats have been supportive of a cap on outside income; incoming Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) has already said her conference is ready to pass such a bill next year.

But Assembly Democrats have never been fully supportive of the idea. The closest their chamber has come to acting on a plan came in 2016, when members passed a bill that would limit outside income to $80,000 per year — far more than the $19,500 being proposed by the committee. Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) has been especially resistant to the idea of acting on outside income if a vote is in any sense connected to an increase in lawmakers’ pay, as he argues this would essentially be an illegal quid pro quo.

The committee is due to release a report detailing its recommendations by the end of the day on Monday.